Lover of books and book reviewer. Usually found in a comfy chair with a book.

REVIEW: The Second Chance Shoe Shop by Marcie Steele

Blurb: All Riley Flynn wants is to meet someone who makes her happy. But attracting the right kind of man is not easy, and with her heart still hurting from her last break-up, Riley believes she’ll never find love again.

A year ago, Sadie Stewart’s whole world was shattered when her husband, Ross, died. She has struggled to keep herself together for the sake of their young daughter, but with the anniversary of his death approaching, Sadie finds herself overwhelmed by grief.

Sadie and Riley work at Chandlers shoe shop, in the charming town of Hedworth. But when Chandlers is threatened with closure, the friends are confronted with the loss of not only their jobs, but also their support network – the glue that holds them together when they are close to breaking.

As they put together a plan to save their beloved shop, Sadie realises that she might just be learning to live again. Could it be that new beginnings are just round the corner? The campaign also finds Riley unexpectedly crossing paths with charming photographer, Ethan. Maybe her second chance at love is right under her feet …

My Rating: 5/5

Review: Having read and really enjoyed the previous Marcie Steele books published by Bookouture I was very interested in this one, even more so when I read the blurb. I knew this was my type of book and being stuck at home as I had work being done so I decided what better time than this to read this book, although read is not entirely accurate as I did rather devour this in one sitting it was that good. Like I said I’ve enjoyed Marcie’s previous books, my review of Stirred With Love is here on Goodreads, as I read it before this blog existed. My review of her second book is here That’s What Friends Are For.

Although this is a stand alone novel it does make some small references to the previous two which I loved as I felt it added a little more to the sense of place of the book, though it has been done in such a way that anyone reading this book first will not feel like they are missing out on vital information.

This book tells the story of Riley, Sadie and Dan who all work in the local shoe shop and love what they do, even though they feel that shop is in danger of closing. As well as the possible risk of losing their jobs they are also struggling with their personal lives, Riley has had bad experiences, Sadie had lost her husband and Dan is going on endless, sometimes hilarious, dates trying to meet someone after his last relationship didn’t work out. Alongside this there are other intertwining stories and characters, some of which have more of an impact than others. This is a brilliantly written, easy to read story which shows just how much even the smallest action can affect someone’s life and have repercussions on others as well. It is also an excellent demonstration of how fickle social media and people’s opinions can be given how quickly things can change nowadays. But mainly this is a story of friendship, love, and fighting for what you want and believe in against what can seem like insurmountable odds. This was a lovely, well-told story and easily (in my opinion) Marcie’s best one yet. I loved the characters, even the not so nice ones, and although some parts of the story didn’t quite take the path I had expected the path they did take made sense once the ending of it was revealed and what an excellent ending it was. This is definitely a story to curl up with when you want a bit of realistic escapism or some inspiration for your own problems and I would highly recommend it. Oh, and before I forget, make sure you have some tissues handy, you’ll need them!

Many thanks to Bookouture for letting me have an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and enormous thanks to Marcie for writing such an excellent book, I can’t wait for the next one!

The Second Chance Shoe Shop is out on 8th April 2016 and is available to pre-order on Amazon UK and on Amazon US